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BBC’s freelance payments ‘give rise to tax suspicions’

Jill Sherman

October 5 2012, 1:01am, The Times

Margaret Hodge: public sector must maintain the highest standards

The public spending watchdog has raised concerns that the BBC employs 25,000 people a year who do not pay tax at source. The cross-party Public Accounts Committee said that it was shocked at how many off-payroll contracts, under which individuals must make their own tax and national insurance payments, were provided by the corporation.

Some 3,000 of these people are paid via private companies, potentially allowing them to limit their tax liabilities. Margaret Hodge, chairman of the PAC, said that the arrangements gave rise to “suspicions of complicity in tax avoidance”.